THE COUCH OF TRUTH: Episode Four "Abortion: Three Stories" {official Thing} (Patreon)

Hallo my loves.

TL;DR:

Episode Four of The Couch of Truth - "Abortion: Three Stories" - is up now on YouTube and Vimeo. If the clip resonates, please, share away. Text it to a friend or a partner. Email it to a group of pals. Don't feel that social media is your only option.

The episode is embedded at the top of this post, or you can see the full four-episode playlist so far here on YouTube or here on Vimeo.

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Greetings from lockdown day four from Lifeboat New Zealand, as some call it here. I have been up to my eyeballs in lockdown weirdness. Barely a chance to pee much less think and write and process, but luckily I've got Merch-Queen-turned-Tech-and-Post-Helper-Queen Alex to help me out in my hour of need. Your patron dollars are well-spent on my own lifeboat, and I'm lucky to have the team I have. Everybody's helping me keep above water. Lifeboat AFP.

So,....here we go again, my loves, and DAMN this one's a good one...iiiiit's Community Weekly Therapy on The Couch Of Truth.

We need a jingle!!! That's usually my job. Why didn't I write a Ukulele jingle.

Because you're tired, Amanda.

Anyway....

it's time.

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First of all... I want to thank all of you for continuing to WATCH, comment, SHARE...and give me positive feedback. And so many of you: thank you for sharing your own stories off the back of these posts so far. It means so much, both to me, and to those who shared to kick it off.

If you want to catch up on the previous three episodes (and read updates from where some of the participants are at now), the posts - and their own comment sections - are here:

Episode One - Suicide & Mental Health: Three Stories 

Episode Two - Miscarriage: Where Is The Hallmark Card? 

Episode Three - Grief: And It's Going To Hurt 

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The full backstory on how this project and the whole series came about is in the post for the first episode ("Suicide & Mental Health: Three Stories") so if this is totally new to you, or you've just joined the patreon.....go catch up on what this is all about:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/54178798

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And as I mentioned in the last post, we are planning to go ahead with a POST-SERIES Q&A WEBCAST.

Our plan is to play some short clips of every episode, I'll be there co-hosting with the filmmaker, Jenessa Joffe, and we'll hopefully be able to invite some of the participants on screen to talk about their experience and answer your questions.

Since Auckland went into lockdown and my schedule is vercocked, we're re-thinking the schedule, but STAY TUNED. 

We'll update you soon...

FOR NOW....

the real shit.

(photo by Kahn & Selesnick)

Guess what NOBODY EVER WANTS TO TALK ABOUT??

I'll give you a hint!

It STARTS WITH AN A, it ENDS WITH AN N, and it's becoming harder and harder to safely and legally access in the United States of America!!!!

YOU GUESSED IT, friends.

My favorite traumatic topic of all time!

ABORTION!!!!!

I've had three!

Have you had any?

Has your partner? 

Has your sister? Mother? Aunt? Cousin? Best friend?

Wait....don't tell me.

Save it for the shadowbox.

I just made a patron-only discussion thread here on the shadowbox. All patrons can join in.

Strangely enough, these stories were told in Canada, which is not the USA.

If I had my way, I would have spent a whole year of my life going from couch to couch all over the world gathering these stories.

Don't think I'm kidding, I actually pitched a film project to myself in which I couch-surfed with Ash to all 50 United States to gather anonymous abortion stories. Maybe it's not too late. After Covid, though, don't you think....

Story-gathering.

It's so important.

It's one of the most powerful tools we have.

It's the oldest tool in activism.

These women.

So smart.

So brave.

I'll stop talking so you can listen to what they have to say.

And I'm also going to remind you that while the world frays and burns, my podcast team is hard at work every day on a podcast series we've been working on for months...about abortion. This is just the tip of the iceberg. 

There is so much more to say, and there is so much more to do.

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Again: a huge thank you to these three gorgeous people - Lish, Nicole, and Lindsay - who bared their hearts for us.

Since these were filmed back in March of 2019, we wanted to catch up with them all.

Here's what they wrote in....

Lish

It's so surreal to see that this interview actually happened, the last 2 years feels a bit like nothing is real.  When I first saw the Patreon post asking anyone attending those shows if they would like to participate in an honest discussion about something related to a theme from the album, I knew immediately what I had to speak of.  

While other themes of death, loss, and cancer are all things I've dealt with, human rights always feels like the most important thing to speak of.  

Fighting for abortion rights and the normalization of abortion as always felt important to me, and even if I'm not always comfortable sharing my personal story, I knew I would feel hypocritical if I didn't.  I have always thought it important to fight for rights of marginalised communities, those I am a part of (women, LGBTQ2S+) and those I am not.  While abortion is legal in Canada, it is certainly restricted by requirements and accessibility.

This is even more true for isolated parts of the country, which heavily effects our Indigenous population.  Anyone living in Canada or following news from here, should know the fight to unearth the horrors inflicted upon indigenous people by the Canadian government is raging strong right now.  Many didn't know the details of the terror that happened at these institutions we refer to as "residential schools", but were not schools at all.  

At the time I write this, our country is mourning the discovery of more than 1100 unmarked graves found so far, with certainly more to come.  Along side this fight to bring to light what happened in the recent past is the war to end pipelines destroying First Nations land, bring clean drinking water to everyone, and accessible health care.  

Please consider donating to the Native Women's Association of Canada, which by their own words are an organization "representing the political voice of Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse people in Canada, inclusive of First Nations on and off reserve, status and non-status, disenfranchised, Métis and Inuit".

#everychildmatters

(Photo protesting during the pandemic)

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Nicole

At the beginning of the pandemic I had just moved to Toronto a few months prior to begin graduate school. Once again away from friends and family, but this time accompanied by my loving partner and our two cats. It was an interesting couple of years, as I’m sure it was for everyone else, and I had my ups and downs. 

Now recently graduated with a master’s degree, I’m about to start my dream job as a mental health professional working with other LGBTQ+ folks. Things don’t always happen the way you expect them to, but somehow, we get through it one way or another. I’m building a life here, nurturing new relationships, and feeling gratitude for how far I’ve come.

I’ve been spending time reflecting on the experience I talked about on that couch with Amanda. I don’t regret my choices I made many years ago, but I do regret not being able to reach out for support at the time. Sharing my experience has been an important part of my healing from that. You don’t have to go through it alone.

I’m including a photo of myself and my three-legged cat, Fae, who has been with me all throughout the journey I spoke of. Photo taken by my lovely partner.

I would love to highlight Safer Six Inclusive Sexual Health Clinic in Toronto, so that people are aware that there are inclusive options when taking care of your sexual and reproductive health.

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Lindsay

Since filming, Lindsay has continued to focus on her career as a photographer, and is currently covering the Canadian election. She lives in Toronto with her partner, and they recently adopted a dog from a local rescue. She is working on releasing her first artistic project in 2022, ‘CONVENIENCE’. A photo project devoted to creating a historical record of immigrant owned, independent convenience stores in Toronto, which are vanishing with the expansion of the city. You can find her work at www.lindsayduncanphoto.com

Reflecting on the experience of filming this interview, Lindsay wanted to add the following:

"I do want to say I would have loved to see more representation when speaking about abortion experiences and accessibility. For all the challenges and hoops myself and other women have to face, as able-bodied, white, femme-presenting people we still benefit from a system that is set up for us. Marginalized and raciallized people’s experiences within health care tend to be even worse. When we talk about abortion, coverage across all platforms still tends to focus on white, cis-gendered femme-women, and I’m hoping we can see more open discussion about everyone’s experiences in fighting for equity in bodily autonomy :)"

If anyone feels called to donate to a project in need, please devote what you can to The Indigenous Residential School Survivors Fund. Recently Canadians are learning more about the horrific history of stolen and murdered indigenous children in Canada, by the Catholic Church and sanctioned by our government. The survivors and their families deserve justice, restitution, and support. www.irsss.ca/donate

(Lindsay, her partner, and their sweet little rescue Pushkin, photo by Lindsay Duncan)

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You can see some themes here, and we get into this deeply in the podcast.

The story cannot just be the stories of the people who have the giant platforms and resources. We have to dig deeper. We have to do better.

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AGAIN....this time with visual....I made patron-only thread on our beloved forum, theshadowbox.net, that you can use for story sharing FAR away from patreon and facebook and social media. It's a nice place to hide out with friends.

https://forum.theshadowbox.net/t/abortion-thread-for-stories-for-sharing-for-heart-healing/7996

(And....this thread is not to be confused with the patron-only Miscarriage discussion thread, which you are more than welcome to go check out. It's also deep and beautiful. This community rocks.).

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A note: this Couch Episode also includes some clips from the video for "Voicemail For Jill", one of the key songs from There Will Be No Intermission. 

We shot the music video partly at my own apartment in the Cloud Club, and I'm so proud of how this turned out....I still cry at the end.

You can watch the video here.

(and we also filmed a little behind the scenes video as a fun extra for patrons, too.)

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AND....this Couch Episode also includes a little video clip from the "There Will Be No Intermission" tour show in LA, which we recorded in full, funded by your good selves here on Patreon, and was Thinged exclusively for patrons back in 2019.

You can see the full show, and read all about it right here, in this patron-only post.

(and for extra bonus points, you can see what ended up being the FINAL FORM of the tour by rewatching the livestream we did from London in December 2019)

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The final episode of The Couch of Truth series will be heading your way next week....

"HAVING A KID... OR NOT: TWO STORIES ABOUT BEING OKAY"

(photo by Allan Amato)

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CREDITS:

Cast:
Amanda Palmer
Lish
Nicole
Lindsay

Director / Producer:
Jenessa Joffe

Field Producer:
Lora Campbell

Director of Photography:
Nyssa Gluck

Camera Operators:
Chantal Garcia
Danielle Thorn

Location Sound:
Bridget Tang

Hair / Make-Up Artist:
Sahar Junejo

Production Assistants:
Lindsay Duncan
Sarah JM Kolberg

Editors:
Cindy Long
Caddie Hastings
Matt Marhefka
Penda Diakité

Re-Recording Mixer:
Greg Townley

Still Photography:
Allan Amato
Kyle Cassidy
Lindsay Duncan
Kahn & Selesnick
Stephanie Zakas

“VOICEMAIL FOR JILL” MUSIC VIDEO
Concept: Amanda Palmer
Director: Amber Sealey
Featuring: Kate Adams in the role of Jill

CONCERT FOOTAGE  
Director: Jesse DeFlorio
Director of Photography: Seth Iliff
Production & Lighting Designer: Lauren Sego

Special Thanks:
Jordan Verzar
Hayley Rosenblum
Michael McComiskey
Alex Knight

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Tons of thanks to Alex for helping to put this post together.....

And so much love to all of you.

xx

AFP

------THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS---------

1. if you are a patron and new to my work, don’t forget your patronage allows you access to ALL of my patreon releases to date. HERE is the link to download my latest big solo record, “There Will Be No Intermission”, and HERE is a link to download the PDF of the art/essay book that goes with it.

2. if you’re a patron reading this post via an email notification, please click through to comment on this post. at the very least, if you’ve read it, indicate that by using the heart symbol. that's always nice for me to see, so i know who's reading.

3. see All the Things (over 150 of them) i've made so far on patreon:

http://amandapalmer.net/things

4. JOIN THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM, find your people, and discuss everything: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/

5. new to my music and TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? TAKE A WALK THROUGH AMANDALANDA….we made a basic list of my greatest hits n stuff (at least up until a few years ago, this desperately needs updating) on this lovely page: http://amandalanda.amandapalmer.net/

6. general AFP/patreon-related questions? ask away, someone will answer: patronhelp@amandapalmer.net